Today, in a training course for indoor cycle instructors, I realized that I had made my 10th remark about (and sales pitch for) the benefits of yoga for cyclists. If you’re logging a lot of miles in the saddle, and aren’t balancing out your workouts with yoga, read on. Yoga has numerous benefits for weary road warriors.
1.Flexibility
Cycling is a powerful sport, executed in a fixed position often for hours at a time. After a long ride, you will most likely have stiff legs. Over time, without attention to flexibility, these stiff legs will become permanent fixtures. Inflexible leg muscles can be the cause of many adverse conditions, including iliotibial band syndrome, low back pain, knee pain, and overall decreased range of motion. Below you will find 5 stretches that specifically target the muscles overused in cycling.
2. Core Strength
Another cause of low back pain and injury is lack of core strength. The riding position cyclists favor, rounded over to avoid headwinds, is challenging to the back muscles and ligaments to say the least. A strong core, all the way around the 180 degrees of your torso, will help support the spine in this bent-over position.
3. Breathe Better
The average person uses the top one-third of their lungs only. And when they begin to exercise they just breathe faster instead of deeper. Yoga teaches us to breathe fully and deeply, to access the full capacity of our lungs. One deep yoga breath provides almost a liter of oxygen to hungry muscles, compared to a teacup’s worth of oxygen in a normal breath. Which will fuel your ride better?
4. Relaxation Response
The deep, focused breathing we practice in yoga has another benefit. It triggers the relaxation response. Deep breaths help to turn off the sympathetic nervous system and it’s fight-or-flight response. Unless you’re racing, or sprinting to the finish line, consider your time on the bike a rolling meditation. Becoming aware of your body, your breath, your surroundings, and being present and alive. Your heart and your mind will thank you!
5. Mental Focus
When you are in the heat of the moment and your time and peformance is critical, a regular yoga practice will help you be more mindful and mentally focused on the mechanics needed to perform at your very best. A mind free of distractions and negative self-talk is a mind that’s free to engage in powerful motivational thoughts.
6. Cross Training
Yoga takes that bent-over posture and turns it inside out. Yoga will help you strengthen your upper and lower back, and stretch your chest, shoulders, abdomen and hip flexors. So instead of having posture that makes you look like a 90-year old, it will give you the posture and body-balance of a 20-year old. Sign me up!
7. Balance
Speaking of balance, yoga gives cyclists a chance to get out of those stiff-soled shoes, stand barefoot, and improve their own natural sense of balance. The more time we spend on one foot, the better our proprioception. And these subtle balance clues come in very handy in crucial moments on the bike, when avoiding obstacles, traffic, other riders, etc.
If you’re sufficiently convinced to give yoga a whirl, here are a few simple asanas (postures) to get you started. Hold each pose for 5 to 10 long slow breaths:
1. Standing forward bend (Uttanasana): This is an excellent pose to lengthen tight hamstrings. It will also stretch your gluteus maximus, medius and minimus as well as your spinal muscles. Always ‘hinge from the hip’ versus rolling down through your spine. If your hamstrings are very tight, bend your knees to feel more comfortable.
2. Warrior I (Virabhadrasana I): Warrior I is a very good posture to stretch your hip flexors, which are tight in many cyclists. Stand in a lunge with your back foot turned slightly to the side. Reach your arms overhead and try to square your hips to the front.
3. Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II): As in Warrior I this posture stretches the hip joints and opens the groin and stretches the inner thigh muscles. Begin in Warrior I and open your hips and arms out to face the side wall. Press your feet into the ground and reach out through your fingertips.
4. Triangle Pose (Trikonasana): From Warrior II, straighten your front leg, and tilt your whole torso forward over the front leg, making sure to hinge at the hip. Triangle stretches the side body and the hips.
5. Standing forward bend with crossed legs: Start standing upright with the right leg crossed behind the left leg. Slowly fold over, bending your knees if needed. Stick your right hip out and back and walk your hands toward the left side of your feet. This stretch is ideal for the tight IT band that is notorious in cyclists.
Contact me at www.DeniseDruce.com.
